Tucked away in a remote corner of East Lansing is a small field home to a ragtag group of football players. Assembled from all corners of the country and beyond, they hail from a school that’s known to all.
They pass by the banks of the Red Cedar daily, sit in on classes and are lost in the shuffle of the daily college grind — they’re a group of athletes unknown to all. This hodgepodge of football players makeup the MSU Club Football team.
Trotting out of their cars, cleats smacking the pavement, a reminiscent sound of the days of high school, a team begins to gather. In the open field of Patriarche Park in East Lansing, a group of football players whose football days were supposed to end anywhere from months ago to four years ago, gather to play the game they love.
This is football, in it’s simplest form, the way it was supposed to be played. The group comes with the old coach barking out drills, guidance and praise. They throw the same passes, run the same routes and compete with one another just as they did in high school. It’s all business. It’s all another chance to play one more time.
The Chance to Play Again
Adorned in white jerseys and pants with block green font, this group of guys to any passer by might as well be mistaken for the MSU football team that calls Spartan Stadium home. And that’s exactly the point.
Chris Wesolowski, a criminal justice sophomore, is the mastermind of this dream. The idea to form a club team came to Wesolowski for no other reason than he missed playing the game he loved. Now the President of MSU Club Football, he originally was looking to play the game again but now he’s 
“Watching the varsity every Saturday, I really missed it,” Wesolowski said. “I found out we didn’t have one (club football team) so I talked to Ms. Angela Michael, the (assistant) club sports director, and she laid out the process of how to start a team.”
With an idea in hand and the process before him, Wesolowski caught an unexpected and fortunate break from someone who shared in his dream.
“She (Michael) called me an hour later and said she just got a call from a coach that started the club football team at Oakland University and that he wants to start one here,” Wesolowski said.
Al Manfroni would be the man on the other end of the line that answered Wesolowski’s prayer. Manfroni, who has a son at MSU, wanted to give his son the opportunity to play football after high school but realizing that no team existed at MSU he contacted Michael as well.
Manfroni has a history of building from the ground up. As a former high school football coach, he started the program at Oakland University and left it in good hands, as they won the national championship this past season under the leadership of Manfroni’s assistant coach. Wesolowski, with the guidance of Manfroni and help from other interested students brought the team to life.
The Players
It’s unfair to call them a ragtag group of football players because of their blatant athletic prowess, but they hail from everywhere. Almost like a quilt, the boys on this team come from all over to make up the framework of the team. But none better to set the standard of what this team means than its six captains.
“What we have here is different than most teams, it’s a big a family,” Devin Schlossberg said. “It’s nice to have that family feeling again and get behind a big sport and a big rally and big cause.”
Schlossberg, a human biology premedical senior, wears 89 for the green and white and is brute force at 6-feet-3 inches tall and 250 pounds, imposing his will upon opposing teams’ offensive lines. He’s been a key contributor to the defense that has only given up 22 points in three games.
Schlossberg is a defensive tackle and one of six captains alongside, Vinny Costanzo, Jake Sterling, Lucas Mayo, Bill Zatezalo and John Strain.
The six of them together off the field in one spot is an unstoppable force of jokes and camaraderie that is the epitome of sport. They never miss the chance to poke fun at one another, chiding each other over their strength, looks and ability to be serious in front of the camera lens. They’ve only known each other for a short time, but they might as well have been raised together. It speaks to what this team is about.
“It’s probably one of the best decisions I ever made,” Sterling said about making the choice to play club football.
A fifth year advertising senior, he hails from Monroe, Mich. With hands as soft as a pillow, it’s rare a ball is dropped by the 6-foot-1, 195 pound wide receiver. For the game he loved it wasn’t hard to make the decision either.
“I thought what the heck, might as well go out and try it,” Sterling said. “It’s my last year, might as well go out with a bang.”
Mayo, the feisty 5-foot-8 safety helps anchor a strong secondary. Undoubtedly the most vocal guy on the field at any given time, he barks orders which demand respect from his teammates.
Zatezalo is a quiet, but hard-hitting linebacker who commands a presence on the field, but is well liked off of it. Soft spoken and timid in front of the camera, he can’t help but take jibes from his teammates. However, he’s too comfortable around them not to quip back.
At 6-foot-3 with a lumberjack beard, offensive lineman John Strain might be the funniest of the group. Unafraid to put himself out there, he kicks off the jokes. An immovable force on the field, he’s on the front line of defense for QB Costanzo. It’s a position of unsung heroes and he fits the mold well.
Costanzo grew up playing the game, and like the other five guys, wanted to strap the pads on one more time, to play the game he was supposed to give up after high school. Soft-spoken, he’s got the outgoing side and happy personality that lives up to the Italian in him. He throws the ball around the field with the vision and poise you want in a quarterback.
The six captains each represent what this team is about. They might be done playing on a stage fit for kings and the pressure that comes with playing for their school. Now they play the game the way it was intended to be played, for the love of it. And that’s what they’ve been doing.
Putting in Work
“We had a combine in April out at the indoor turf at IM (Sports) West and we had over a hundred kids out,” Wesolowski said. “After that, people have been emailing the club email like ‘oh I just found out there’s a team I wanna join,’ so yeah there’s definitely a lot of interest.”
Impressed by the ability of athletes and the humongous showing at the combine, the outlook for the program and the season was as bright as anyone could tell. With raw natural ability that could certainly be division one level, the team set high aspirations for their first year.
On Oct. 4, in crisp black uniforms outlined in green and white, with sleek Spartan green helmets adorned with the world famous MSU ‘S’, the group of 57 brothers stepped onto the field for the first time together to tackle people other than themselves.
All hyped up on the chance to play one more time, and the chance to play for one another, the team took the field as Spartans. And Spartans they played like.
Banging together and fighting every play they took down The Ohio State University Club Team 45-0. A completely dominating effort for a group of guys who just got their club up and running.
There’s an old saying that there are people who play football and there are football players. To call these men anything less than true football players would sell them short.
An impressive 3-0 start and the MSU Club Football team is ranked third in the nation for club teams, and is poised to deliver a championship in its inaugural season.
What a fitting ending that would be for a bunch of guys who only play for the love of the game
